


An Inch to the Left

by Runic



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Corruption, Dark, F/M, Hurt, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-28 23:34:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20786891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runic/pseuds/Runic
Summary: "So the Fell Star consumes even the darkness itself."But what if it didn't? What if it was the other way around?





	An Inch to the Left

**Author's Note:**

> A concept idea I wanted to explore. Used it to also explore some writing style choices. Let me know if you guys think it works or not.

She reached out her hand, Sothis' own fingertips brushing against her own. There was so much light, golden and divine, swirling around like a storm. And yet, her heart was calm. This was a fate she could accept, a power that would allow her to protect the ones she loved. Sothis would still be with her, and her power would-

Byleth's thoughts cut off violently as a look of terror crossed over Sothis' face. Tendrils of darkness curled around them, swallowing that golden light. Byleth lurched forward, trying to grab for the goddess, but the darkness was so quick. She could feel it inside her, coursing through her soul like a poison. She could not breathe. She couldn't breathe!  _ Sothis! _

She could still feel the goddess, felt her power fully enter her. But where before Sothis had felt like the warm embrace of a parent, now she was cold. Byleth felt like a snake had curled itself around her, and as it squeezed and crushed her ribs, it dove dagger long fangs into the back of her neck, pumping that foul toxin into everything that made her her. 

_ Give in, _ it whispered, a malicious mirth accompanying the non existent voice.

"Never!" Byleth shouted to the darkness. She struggled, trying desperately to release herself from the snake. There, deep within her very core, she could still feel Sothis' warmth. If she could just reach it. 

_ You will not prevail. Why fight it? The power it offers is so much more than what you receive from the pitiful goddess.  _ The voice said put so much spite into the last word Byleth actually felt ill just hearing it. 

She continued to struggle, trying to shut out the voice, but the snake held her tight. It seemed the more she resisted the harder the snake squeezed. And that warmth was fading.  _ Sothis, please don't leave me. _

_ She will not leave you,  _ the voice told her, invading her thoughts.  _ Not even we could separate your souls now that they have joined. But she has already given in. Can't you feel it? Can't you sense her will weakening? _

"No!" She had wanted to scream, to rage against the monster, but her voice came out as nothing more than a choked sob. 

But it was true. The voice did not lie. The warmth was almost completely gone now. Sothis had given Byleth her power, but the darkness had corrupted that gift before it could be fully given. Sothis had lost hope. 

The warmth disappeared, extinguished like the last gasp of a dying candle.

Byleth fell limp in the snake's grasp. Darkness washed over her. It was cold, so very cold.

Perhaps she could convince Dimitri to lend her his cloak when she got back. 

/

Dimitri's grip tightened around his spear, quickly forcing himself to relax again before his unnatural strength broke the wooden shaft. 

"Thales! What are you doing here?" Tomas...no, Solon, his real name was Solon, asked. His voice went an octave higher as he addressed the new comer. 

The man reached a hand up to the air in front of him, as if he were about to help a lady down from her carriage. "I am here to greet our newest asset," he said as if he were commenting on the weather, but knew there was a tidal wave about to crash against the shore, and the destruction it would being in its wake would leave him with a great amount of joy. There was something familiar about his voice, something that provoked a primal instinct to fight within Dimitri. 

Before anyone could really process that, the very sky split open, dark smoke pouring from the cut. A hand, small and strong, reached out to take hold of Thales' offered hand. Her hand slid easily into his own.

"No," Dimitri heard himself whisper. He did not feel the word leave him. His soul was divorced from his body, his entire world crashing around him. He knew that hand. It made no sense that she would allow that thing to touch her, let alone accept its offer of help. No sense at all. Something was very wrong. Voices began to echo in his ears, warning him, screaming that their revenge would go unfulfilled if he simply stood there.

But the sight of her froze Dimitri to the ground. Thales pulled Byleth from the wound in the sky, and the sky itself seemed to crash around him. 

Her skin was pale, too pale. He had only seen that coloring before on corpuses. Or on the man and his lackeys that now held Byleth's hand. Her hair had lost all pigment, just as Edelgard's, hanging loose around her shoulders like waves of snow. 

Byleth turned to her students, an unnaturally pleasant smile distorting her lips. His Professor's smiles was rare, given like the most cherished of gifts. It was warm and made him feel light. Dimitri could never not return that smile.

This smile was nothing like that. Dimitri swallowed back against the bile rising in his throat. 

"Oh goddess, her eyes," Annette whispered, voice shaking as badly as her body. 

"I'm gonna be sick." Dimitri thought that was Sylvain, but every ounce of willpower he possessed was currently trying to make sure he did not do that exact thing. 

Byleth's eyes were black, as dark as the trails of smoke still curling out from the slowly closing wound. Red irises, dark as freshly spilled blood, stared back at them all. He could feel those eyes devouring him, wanting to take him in and tear him apart. She was a cat looking forward to playing with cornered mice.

She was disturbing. She was beautiful. She was a nightmare wearing the flesh of the woman who made his heart beat erratically. 

"Thales, what-?" 

Solon was cut off when those terrible eyes turned to him. The smile dropped from her face, and somehow the frown was worse. Dimitri remembered the time Sylvain had snuck in and shifted everything in his room one inch to the left. Looking at Byleth was like that, only amplified. There was something changed about her, more than the physical aspects, something that just escaped his ability to define. 

Byleth turned to Thales, and he raised his eyebrows. Some sort of silent exchange took place between them, for a moment later Thales sighed with more than a little melodrama. 

"Very well," he said, relenting to whatever unspoken request Byleth had made. His tone made Dimitri think Thales was not all to concerned with whatever was about to happen, and was simply putting on a show. That thought was helped along when Thales raised Byleth's hand to his lips, giving her the courteously of a proper lord to a lady. "If it will make you happy."

Thales let go of Byleth's hand and stepped back. Byleth wasted no time, hand going to her sword as she took a step toward Solon.

"Thales! You can't-" But Solon did not finish. With one brutal strike Byleth separated his head from his shoulders. It hit the ground with a sickening splat, and bounced across the grass, resting someplace out of sight. 

Byleth gave Solon's body a swift kick just for good measure. A flick of her wrist sent blood flying from the tip of the Sword of the Creator. The light around it was black instead of the usual red glow associated with a relic, and black lightning cracked in the hole where the missing crest stone should have occupied. Whatever they had done to her, Byleth's crest was just as twisted as the rest of her. 

And then her attention was on them again, that smile back in place. Every instinct in Dimitri's body told him to run, every dead voice urged him away from the oncoming fray, but he stood frozen. It was mostly fear, but there was a part of him that felt he would be abandoning her if he left now. He only thought to bring up his spear at the last moment.

Byleth stopped, tilting her head at his defensive stance. Dimitri had barely any time to react. With an almost lazy swing of her sword, his lance was in two pieces, droplets of blood falling from his right hand where the blade had grazed him. He had been very lucky. 

No. That was not it.

When he looked into those dark eyes, he understood. She had done it on purpose. If he fought her now, she would destroy him. There was nothing holding her back now. No morality, no compassion. Nothing.

Byleth stepped into his space before he could bring his hands up to attempt another defense. Her hand caressed his cheek in a mockery of a loving motion. It was like a winter's wind had slapped him, and he flinched away. Byleth grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eye.

He saw it then, what he could become. He saw the pure savagery with which he could destroy his foes, the delight he would receive as he ripped them limb from limb and their blood stained his hands. Consumed by revenge he set upon a bloody path, leaving the world to burn and walking a path stained red. 

That monster was familiar. He had stepped into those shoes before, worn that tormented skin. Every time he did, it was harder to pull himself back, harder to deny what the dead demanded he become for their sake. It was sickening. It was exhilarating. 

If he accepted her now there would be no going back. Dimitri would lose himself to the darkness completely, with no guarantee for a path back into the light. He would have the power to exact his revenge, but it would cost him everything.

Those eyes told him he would not be alone. Byleth would be by his side, tearing the world apart right alongside him. They would bow to her as she destroyed everything they cared for. And she would go unchallenged if Dimitri was her sword. He would strike such fear into their hearts that no one would dare to defy her.

"No!" he shouted. He threw his head back, Byleth's nails tearing into his chin. The gashes she left behind were cold, his blood clinging to his chin like ice. 

He fought to gain control of his breathing, feeling as if he had to remind his lungs they had to draw in air. Byleth simply stared at him, and for a moment she looked like the mercenary he first met, before she had shown any sign she was capable of emotion. 

A strong hand gripped his shoulder, Dedue, reminding him the world was more than just the two of them. The rest of the Blue Lions all had weapons ready, but none seemed willing to use them. Whatever she may have become, she was still their Professor. She was the woman that had made them strong, the very heart of their dysfunctional little family. 

But Byleth paid them no mind. She reached for him again, and Dimitri visibly flinched away from that unnaturally pale skin. Byleth paused, and for a moment she seemed hurt. 

"Professor? Please…" He trailed off, not knowing what else to say. 

Byleth, however, took his words as an invite. She grasped the fabric of his cloak at his shoulder and yanked. Dimitri stumbled forward, hearing the fabric tear. The clasp he used to secure his cloak fell to the grass broken and useless. 

Dimitri stared in disbelief as Byleth wrapped the material around her shoulders. A look of relief washed over her face as she curled into its warmth. She flashed him that stomach churning smirk, and turned away. 

Turned back to Thales, who once more held a hand out for her to take. It was not right how naturally Byleth's own hand slid into Thales grasp, how comfortable and content she looked being led away by him. 

"Professor!" Dimitri cried out, starting forward. He could not let her leave. Something told him that if he let her leave, she would be truly lost to them. Lost to him. He screamed, the very core of him open and raw at the thought of losing her. "Byleth!"

She looked back over her shoulder, blinking in surprise. And she smiled. The one that made him blush. The one he wished to see upon her face every day for the rest of their lives.

A flash of dark light engulfed her. 

Thales' triumphant smirk was the last thing Dimitri saw before the world broke apart. 

**Author's Note:**

> I probably won't write anymore for this idea. I'm not sure where I'd go with it, nor do I really relish having to work through just how dark it would get. But it was a fun little snippet to explore.


End file.
